Time is an Illusion, Reality is broken
by SapphireShelle91
Summary: They were too late. They released the will'o'wisps and proved the Witch-Finder false and the townsfolk backed off. But they were too late. They were too late. This fic is an AU starting from around the end of the Witch-Finder arc (Episode 4 of the tv series and chapters 12 & 13 in the book). WARNING: Major Character Death in the first chapter.


**Author's Note:** This fic is an AU starting from around the end of the Witch-Finder arc (Episode 4 of the tv series and chapters 12 & 13 in the book).  
Since a portion of the book/TV series is dealing with time travel, changing events in time and alternate realities, my brain came up with this plot line, which is; what if Garland, Timon and Boomer were just a couple of minutes later arriving with the will'o'wisps. In the episode, Goneril and Eden are already tied to the dunking chair and in the well by the time the trio and the will'o'wisps arrived, so what if, the trio were even later? What if the dunking process was almost fully completed by the time they arrived? This is my AU.

 **Disclaimer:** Maddigan's Fantasia (the book by Margaret Mahy) and Maddigan's Quest (the TV series) do not belong to me. I'm just borrowing them for my own entertainment and joy. They belong to Margaret Mahy the writer of the book and creator behind the BBC and South Pacific Pictures TV series.

* * *

 **Time is an Illusion,**

 **Reality is broken**

 _Witch-Finder (Episode 4)  
_

They were too late.

They released the will'o'wisps and proved the Witch-Finder false and the townsfolk backed off. But they were too late. They were too late.

By the time they were able to pull the dunking chair out of the well, Goneril and Eden had been underwater for almost the full five minutes. There had been some luck on their side. Some but not enough.

The chair was stopped during the dunking process with appearance of the will'o'wisps and hadn't been completely submerged into the well's water allowing for Goneril to keep breathing by tilting her head back as far as it would go. But that was where their luck ended. Eden wasn't so lucky with his smaller frame, and while Goneril was pulled from the chair sobbing and gasping for air, the young boy's head fell listlessly forward onto his chest, not moving a muscle, not breathing.

Timon trembling hands grasped his brother's shoulders, shaking and pleading with him to wake up, please Eden, wake up!

Mouth-to-mouth was tried but with no success, the young boy was gone and dead like Ferdy, like Bailey and their own parents before him. Dead and gone forever and the silence was echoing his loss. It was deafening and Timon hated it.

He shook Eden's shoulders again, pleading and begging. He couldn't leave! How dare he leave; they still had a job to do, remember Eden? For the future, their future, for Solis and their parents, and he can't… he can't do this without him. And Jewel? What about Jewel, how could he leave Jewel?

The words were flowing from his mouth; useless words, senseless, pleading words but he can't seem to stop them, he can't, he just can't. Because-because just maybe, just maybe if he keeps talking, Eden will hear him, hear him and come back from wherever he has gone, because he has to, he is meant to listen to Timon. Timon is his big brother and as his big brother, Timon demands that he comes back, right now. Eden isn't one to disobey his big brother, so why should he start now? He can't start now, he can't! Eden, come back!

But his brother isn't listening to him, or simply can't hear him from wherever he is and no matter how much Timon shakes him, pleads with him, talks to him or yells, nothing is going to bring him back, nothing.

He becomes aware of arms wrapped around his shoulders, a head pressed against the side of his own and the sounds of soft crying. He knows who it is and is grateful that it is her rather than anyone else who is holding him because she, above anyone else present, gets it. She understands what he is feeling; she understands what it feels like to lose the most important person in your life, she understands the agony of it.

Her arms are like an anchor, holding him firm and not letting him slip away or fling himself in fury at the Witch-Finder who is now defending her actions against not only the Fantasia but to her own townsfolk.

 _They are just as guilty_ , he thinks with such hatred it would have surprised him under normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances. Eden is gone, dead, never coming back and Timon is filled with so much hate, so much anger that he wants to tear not only the Witch-Finder, but every single one of the damning townsfolk apart, limp but limp. But he can't, because she is holding him firm, and there is now a wall of Fantasia standing between him and townsfolk.

So instead, he screams at them. Because Eden is gone and can no longer hear his pleads, gone to a place Timon cannot follow him, so Timon screams at these murderers, these evil, narrow-minded murderers until he is hoarse and his throat is raw and he has to be pulled away because her arms around him are no longer strong enough to keep him from attacking the Witch-Finder.

He fights against those who pull him away, away from the Witch-Finder, the townsfolk, from Eden. He begs them not to, because he can't, he can't leave Eden, he promised!

No, no he can't, let him go! Let him go back to his brother! He can't leave him! He promised that he would never leave Eden alone! He was meant to protect him! That was his job, to protect him…

And he… he had failed…

Thought caused him to sag against the gentle but firm hands that have hold of him and he starts to weep. He wept until the tears would no longer fall and he felt he might just die himself from the pain in his chest, in his heart.

He lay his aching head upon his pillow in Goneril wagon, with no memory of how he got there and wishing that this was all just a bad dream, a bad dream that he just needed to wake up from, he just had to wake up!

 _ **MQ**_

He didn't know how long he slept, only that when he did it was dark within the wagon, the only point of light was a candle lit near his feet, the soft light dancing upon the golden locks of the sleeping girl sitting beside his bunk, her diary lying open upon her lap, her pen hanging limply between her fingers.

He stares at her for a long time wondering just how long she has sat there while he has slept, wondering just how long she would continue to sit there. The answer both scares him and fills him with hope, though the hope is quick to die (as does his fear) when everything comes crashing back to him and it is all too much for him to bear.

She wakes instantly at his strangle sob, her eyes wide and alert as her head snaps in his direction. Her diary and pen fall to the floor of the van, forgotten in her rush to his side, her arms coming to wrap themselves around him again, her face buried into his hair. He holds onto her for dear life as the fresh wave of grief crashes threw him.

He was never able to properly mourn his parents, there hadn't been time and he had to remain strong for Eden and Jewel. But now Eden is gone, dead and Jewel is with Goneril and everything just feels heavy and wrong and the world is as black and as cruel a place as it ever has been in his own time.

He never mourn his parents, not properly, there simply wasn't time and he had had to be strong but now for Eden, he didn't care about time and all his strength was gone, stolen from him like his brother's life. So he grieves and doesn't feel better for it.

She doesn't leave him; she sits beside him and holds him as he sobs and shakes. She doesn't speak, doesn't say words like everything will be alright or that Eden has gone to a better place. He is certain he would truly hate her if she said such words to him.

But she doesn't, she simply stays silent and holds him until once more the tears refuse to fall and though he feels sick and wants nothing more than to curl up and never move again, he forces himself to stand, to go and find Jewel and to… and to pay his last respects to Eden.

 _ **MQ**_

Timon has never been to a funeral before; people simply disappear in his Solis, never to be seen again. There are no bodies to bury or graves to visit, they are simply gone and you are punished if you speak of them.

He doesn't want to bury Eden near the Witch-Finder's town, doesn't want his brother anywhere near those people. He doesn't want to bury Eden at all really but there is nothing else that the Fantasia can do. But they do take him away from the Swamptown; they don't want to bury him there either. Instead, they find a kind of haven in the swamp lands, where the earth is firm under foot and flowers still bloom prettily.

It is a quiet spot, a hidden one, off the road and concealed by trees, no one would ever find him here, not unless they knew where to look. But Garland, Garland had known where to look, though she answered no one's questions as to how she knew of such a spot existing when she led them to it without hesitation, without a misstep.

She had simply shaken her head, her eyes downcast and face drawn. Timon, unlike the others, doesn't ask her though, of how she knew of the spot, he doesn't care how she knew, only that it was perfect for his brother, a perfect spot for his final resting place.

The Fantasia tried to talk him out of digging his brother's grave, but he ignored them all and snatched up a shovel and slammed it brutally into the earth. At first, they tried to help but they were quick to realize, to understand that their help was not appreciated in this particular task and they left him to dig the hole, the grave by himself.

It was rough work, his hands were covered in bloody blisters and sores and his whole body trembled with fatigued when the task was finally complete, but he had been able work out his anger onto the earth as he had been unable to do so on the Witch-Finder and that was something, he guessed.

He was emotionally numb when it was time for the funeral, he felt not anger or grief or endless sadness, only numbness and a sense of dissociation, like he was watching the funeral through someone else eyes, that he himself wasn't really there.

He didn't speak at the funeral. He couldn't, he had no words left and the numbness had stolen his voice even if he had wished to speak. He simply stood and watched, with Jewel cradled close to his chest as their brother was placed into the earth with uttermost care by Bannister and Tane.

He looked as if he was only sleeping and the earth seemed to be reaching out to welcome him into its warm embrace.

 _He'll become a tree_ , Timon thinks as he stared down at Eden's pale but peaceful face, _a tree will grow here and it will be Eden._

His throat seized painfully and he has to look away, almost unable to breath when Garland whispers to him if he wishes to be first to bid Eden farewell. Her eyes were sad as she holds out a handful of dirt for him to take.

He does so almost mechanically, trying to ignore the burning behind his eyes and to breathe every time he counts to ten in his head. He doesn't look at Eden face as he sprinkles the handful of dirt into his grave, he just can't, and Jewel is fussing and tears are beginning to roll down her plump baby cheeks. It was easier to focus on her than it was to bury their brother.

He can barely watch when they start, with great care, shoveling back in the dirt that he so furiously dug up, his just breaths raggedly, his eyes flickering everywhere but the grave.

Jewel is crying loudly in his arms now but he can barely do more than rock her but that does little to soothe her as she begins to howls. But she does not cry alone. Others in the Fantasia were crying too, Maddie with quiet tears, Goneril sobbing heart wrenching sobs into Tane's shoulder, his hand gently stroking her hair, tears rolling down his face too. Lilith was letting out wails that sound like a dying cat, curled up in a heap near the vans as she watches her father and Bannister bury her friend. Boomer was silent and staring at his feet, his shoulders shaking with grief.

Even Yves is crying, but Timon isn't sure if it is for his brother or because Fantasia has lost their main attraction, their real breadwinner.

Cruel thoughts, he knows and suddenly he can't bear to be around these people, these kind good people who have gone above and beyond to help his siblings and himself, even Yves, who he doesn't always like nor trusts but has never gone out of his way to make them feel unwelcome.

These people can all speak words of Eden's kindness and gentle nature, to cry openly over his lose, but Timon, his own brother cannot speak, cannot cry and is only thinking of himself, of the next breath he needs to take to keep himself alive and trying to keep himself from fainting.

He can't bear it.

His arms move without conscious thought, shoving Jewel into Garland's startled arms before he is tearing out of the secret haven of his brother's grave, his ears deaf to those crying out his name behind him.

He runs and he runs, hoping that if he runs far enough, hard enough that none of this has really happened, that he hasn't just buried his eleven year old baby brother and that this is all just some hideous nightmare that he is still stuck within.

He only stops because he trips over a root and it sends him sprawling into a deep pond of swamp water. He chokes on the water and for a moment wonders if he too will drown like Eden did.

No he is not tied to a dunking chair but learning to swim had never been essential to his life in his own time, with no ponds or lakes not contaminated with pollution to learn in. It hadn't been seen as a necessary skill to learn and now he was going to die from the lack of practical knowledge.

He almost accepts his fate, to die like his brother – it's only what he deserves for failing him so miserably – when he hears his name being screamed, the sound of splashing and hands grabbing him and pulling him free of the water's dark embrace.

"You idiot!" Her golden hair sticks to her face and her eyes were puffy from crying but her words are furious as she takes him by the shoulders and shakes him with all her strength.

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" she chants over and over again as she shakes him until she finally lets out a great sob and tackles him into a hug.

He still has no words to speak but he returns her embrace and tries to tell her how sorry he is for causing her such worry and pain by how tightly he hugs her back.

It takes a while for her to calm down enough to let him go and longer still for him to convince her he isn't about to go running off again. But in the end, they both find the strength to get up, their soaking clothes sticky uncomfortably to them and start to walk side by side back to where they have left the Fantasia.

It's quite the walk and Timon is glad that Garland seems to have some idea where they are going because he doesn't have a clue. He hadn't been paying much attention to where he was running in his desperate bid to escape his crushing new reality.

She keeps a firm hold of his hand, (though she is mindful of his blisters which Goneril had wrapped so carefully before funeral. The bandages would have to changed now because of their unexpected swim), which has become like his only port of feeling, the rest of his body is once again numb, from his grief or from the cold of tumbling into swamp water and having to walk back to the vans in wet clothes and the biting wind, he doesn't know, doesn't care.

 _ **MQ**_

Neither of them are scolded when they finally enter the camp as dusk gives way into evening, they are simply hustled away by respective guardians; Maddie for Garland and Goneril for him.

Goneril has him strip his wet clothes before dressing him in so many layers of wool and heavy cloth that he feels he will not be able to use his arms or legs. He is forced to drink a concoction that is foul tasting but makes him immediately drowsy the moment he finishes the hot soup she has shoved into his hands when he is done changing, watching him like a hawk to make sure he eats every last drop of it. She checks over his blistered covered hands, and once wraps them once more in clean bandages after covering them with a wicked smelling ointment.

It is just as he is getting into his bunk, just about to fall into a drugged sleep when Garland comes to visit him. She too is dressed in her warmest of clothes and looks close to sleep herself but despite the drowsiness in her eyes there is also a look of determination.

She sits down at the end of his bunk, by his feet and takes hold of one his hands, pressing something metal and familiar into his palm.

"You dropped it when we were bringing you back to the vans the other day, after..." her whisper faltered for a moment before continuing "I think Eden, and your mother, would want you to have it, to remember them both by."

It was Eden's medallion and his heart aches to see it, his thumb running over the familiar metal surface. He licks his lips and tries to speak, but she simply smiles and he knows no words are needed, she gets it, she understands.

He sleeps with the medallion around his neck, his hand closed tightly around it, hoping that maybe if he holds it tightly enough, if he wills it enough, maybe, just maybe there would be some power from Eden left over in it that might just bring him back.

 _ **MQ**_

But when he woke the next morning, the magic in the medallion has not worked, and Eden was still gone and they were to be moving off again. They had to, their mission was a on a tight deadline and even a day not spent moving could be the difference between a bright and safe future to the one he had left to change.

Before they leave to start moving once more, he visits Eden's grave having found the words that had been so lost to him yesterday.

He sat at the foot of the grave, Jewel in his lap, alternating from staring at the freshly turned soil to the wooden cross at the head of the grave with Eden's name, birth date and date of his death are carved neatly upon it.

"I don't know how I'm going to do this without you." He says finally to the silence, to the trees and the flowers and the earth, "I don't think I can. I know I must, but… how can I go on, without you by my side? This wasn't how it was meant to be, Eden! This wasn't meant to happen! We were to do this together, help Fantasia, get the Solar Converter and save Solis, save our future, together! I can't do this alone, without you. How can I? I'm not special; I don't have magic or your hope. I need your hope Eden, your light. Without it, I'm going to become lost in the darkness Eden! Without you guiding me, I'll be lost. I am lost already. I need you!"

He receives no answer, even though he was half-expecting to get something, anything and he felt the lead weight settle even more strongly in his gut when there was nothing. The silence was echoing, hatefully so, that it was almost a relief when he heard his name being called, letting him know it was time to go.

He stood up slowly, as if he had years upon his bones, settling Jewel upon his hip as he spoke once more to the grave.

"I know I can't do this without you, but I'm gonna try my best anyway, because I know that is what you would want and you would be unhappy with me if I just gave up. I want to though, hope you know that the only reason I'm not is because of you and because I can't bear to disappoint you. And because…" he swallowed thickly, a small ember of hope burning hotly in his chest, "if I do this, if Fantasia succeeds in getting the converter to Solis, you will be saved, in the future, you will be safe and whole and no will ever, ever touch you again. I promise you Eden, I will save you. I won't fail you again, I promise. No, I swear it, I will save you and I will see you again."

And with that, he leaves his brother's grave, hidden away in the secret haven, not looking back once as he made his way back to the caravans, handing Jewel back to Goneril who ruffles his hair tenderly before he heads to where Garland is already sitting at the back of the wagon.

They didn't speak but sat in silence as the vans start moving, Timon's eyes never leaving the spot that Eden's body was buried until it's well out of sight. Then he slept, his head resting against Garland's shoulder, her arm hooked firmly around his to make sure he didn't fall off. Because if he fell off, who was to say he would ever stop falling and Garland couldn't risk that, so she held onto him tightly and while he slept, she watched the world pass them by in silence, wondering at how easily the dark could snuff out the light.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** It's been awhile since I've felt like writing anything at all, be it fanfiction or my own stuff but I've been sick and by being sick I've went about re-watching and re-reading Maddigan's Fantasia and the both inspired me to write. And write I have.  
It was only meant to be a one-shot au but as I discovered when I first started writing ' _The Most Precious of Treasures_ ' years back, when I start going, I really get going and this thing is now around 60 pages long and still going.

Basically this fic covers, from Timon POV, everything that happens after this episode, but minus Eden. So the events will occur more or less the same as in the TV show (I'm following it rather than the book, no real reason, other than the TV series you see a little more of Timon than you do in the books, not much more but a bit. There will still be elements from the book thrown into) but they will be different because, obviously, Fantasia now doesn't have Eden's magic to help them along. So things and events that were made "easier" because of Eden magic, will be different or non-existent. The characters will also be different and will react to things and each other differently. They will still be the characters we know and love but they will be different.

This has been fun fic to write and hope you will enjoy it as I post more chapters. I'm currently writing Episode 10: Birdboys (probably my least favourite episode) which is hard because Timon is suffering so. I'm not looking forward to writing Episode 11 Pilgrim's Vantage because the pain, the pain but at the same time I'm excited.

Thanks for reading and please review.


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